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From: lambert@cwi.nl (Lambert Meertens)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: What is a byte
Message-ID: <34@piring.cwi.nl>
Date: Mon, 10-Aug-87 04:58:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: piring.34
Posted: Mon Aug 10 04:58:50 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Aug-87 00:58:34 EDT
References: <218@astra.necisa.oz> <142700010@tiger.UUCP>
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 17
Keywords: 32 bit bytes!  You ain't seen nothin', yet.
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.c:3566 comp.std.internat:85

In article <2034@xanth.UUCP> kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
) 
) While we're developing nightmares about the number of bits the Japanese
) need in a char, remember for text processing that for 1 billion of the
) earth's residents, the smallest unit of text processing is the ideograph,
) and that even 21 bits is probably barely sufficient to represent the number
) of written words in Chinese.

Are you suggesting that there are more than 2**20 = 1048576 different
written words in Chinese?  At typically 60 entries on a page, their
dictionaries must have then some 17500 pages or more.  I think that 16 bits
are enough to accommodate all Chinese characters, and certainly ample for
the about 5000 that are in actual use.

-- 

Lambert Meertens, CWI, Amsterdam; lambert@cwi.nl